Russia extends gas debt payment deadline for Ukraine

Gazprom will not be introducing a gas pre-payment method for Kiev on Wednesday after Ukraine missed the June 10 deadline to repay its debt. The deadline has been extended to June 16, Gazprom CEO Aleksey Miller said.

Miller spoke following a Russia-EU meeting in Brussels, stating
that the deadline was extended until 10 a.m. next Monday.

He said during the meeting that Russia and the EU had successful
bilateral talks. As a result, Russia made a step forward by
compromising and agreeing to continue negotiations.

Earlier, Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke with German
Chancellor Angela Merkel over the phone about Kiev's natural gas
supplies debt to Russia, according to the Kremlin's press
service.

"Putin stressed that despite the emerged difficulties, the
Russian delegation obliges to continue the talks based on a
constructive stance and with the aim of achieving a mutually
beneficial agreement," the Kremlin said.

Russia did not block gas supplies to Ukraine on Monday, even
though Kiev’s deadline to pay its more than US$4 billion debt to
state-owned company Gazprom had expired the morning of June 10.

Gazprom extended the original June 2 deadline by one week, and then
added an extra day, as Monday was a public holiday in
Ukraine.

Moscow has threatened to turn off gas supplies – a measure that
was taken in 2006 and 2009.

The aim is to avert a possible cut-off in gas flows to Ukraine –
a move that could also affect supplies to Europe.

Gas talks on Monday
wereinconclusiveand the three parties agreed to
extend negotiations to Tuesday.

The price dispute – the main stumbling block in the debate – was
discussed, along with payments for June, July, and August,
Russia’s Energy Minister Aleksandr Novak reported after Monday’s
meeting.